Both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global challenges that are too often treated separately. With pressing development needs in Least Developed Countries, and with a growing population, approaches to such global challenges require rethinking. But when new approaches are introduced, they must be sustainable; socially, economically and environmentally.

In order to fight poverty, promote security and preserve the ecosystems, sustainable development should be at the heart of policies, planning and management systems. To tackle this challenge, the Realising DReAMS (Development of Resources and Access to Municipal Services) project helps cities to integrate poverty-environment, by introducing an environmental management tool (ecoBUDGET) and a poverty database monitoring system (PDMS).

The aim of the project is to enable cities to use the tools and achieve the ultimate aim of improving living standards and reducing environmental degradation. Furthermore, it assists decision-makers to manage the environment in a way that leads to sustainable development. It works with key local authorities, non state actors and local communities to raise awareness, influence policy making, strengthen the mainstreaming of poverty-environment into local planning and programmes and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/).
The goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

It is implemented in three target local authorities in three different Asian Least Developed Countries (Stung Treng in Cambodia, Thimphu in Bhutan and Rajshahi in Bangladesh) supported by two additional Asian local authorities, which have adopted ecoBUDGET (Bohol in the Philippines and Guntur in India) and by two European cities (Växjö in Sweden and Bologna in Italy).

These countries have the chance of exploring new forms of South-South and North-South cooperation through sharing experiences and cross-cultural learning. The project is aimed at enabling and supporting Local Authorities to achieve sustainability in their services and urban governance and assist in attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 1 and 7).

The local authorities will be facilitated to take informed and well planned decisions with the help of two tested and accepted innovative tools: ecoBudget and the Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMs).